Amnesty Extremely Concerned for Gaza Situation

LONDON, JUNE 14, 2007 (WAFA) – Amnesty International said the political violence in the Gaza Strip is escalating, reaching unprecedented levels in recent days, and is putting the civilian population more and more at risk.

It said in a press release, Amnesty said 130 Palestinians have been killed and several hundreds injured in the past month alone in clashes between the security forces and their proxy militias loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party or to Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyeh’s Hamas party.

Most of the casualties have been gunmen, but scores of unarmed civilian bystanders, including several children, have been killed or injured by Fatah and Hamas gunmen, who have been firing at each other in the streets and from the rooftops of buildings in residential areas of Gaza City and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.